Wednesday, April 8, 2009

Electricity Grid in U.S. Penetrated By Spies

The Columbia Journalism Review, perhaps wrongly*, credits the Journal with a scoop but rightly points out the importance of the issue.From the Wall Street Journal:

Cyberspies have penetrated the U.S. electrical grid and left behind software programs that could be used to disrupt the system, according to current and former national-security officials.

The spies came from China, Russia and other countries, these officials said, and were believed to be on a mission to navigate the U.S. electrical system and its controls. The intruders haven't sought to damage the power grid or other key infrastructure, but officials warned they could try during a crisis or war.

"The Chinese have attempted to map our infrastructure, such as the electrical grid," said a senior intelligence official. "So have the Russians."

The espionage appeared pervasive across the U.S. and doesn't target a particular company or region, said a former Department of Homeland Security official. "There are intrusions, and they are growing," the former official said, referring to electrical systems. "There were a lot last year.">>>MUCH MORE

From the CJR:

The Wall Street Journalgets a major scoop on its page one this morning, reporting that China and Russia have penetrated the U.S. electrical grid, seeding it with malware that could be used to try to shut the system down.

The spies came from China, Russia and other countries, these officials said, and were believed to be on a mission to navigate the U.S. electrical system and its controls. The intruders haven’t sought to damage the power grid or other key infrastructure, but officials warned they could try during a crisis or war…

Many of the intrusions were detected not by the companies in charge of the infrastructure but by U.S. intelligence agencies, officials said. Intelligence officials worry about cyber attackers taking control of electrical facilities, a nuclear power plant or financial networks via the Internet.

It’s pretty scary stuff, something that always waves the red flag to look more closely at what’s backing it up. It seems we’ve made ourselves pretty vulnerable by having a centralized electricity system plugged into the Internet:...MORE

*I say "perhaps wrongly" because we threw these stories in the link-vault over two weeks ago: